Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 16, 2025 - Thursday in the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 3:21-30 and Luke 11:47-54]For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Does God belong to Jews alone? Does he not belong to Gentiles, too? Yes, also to Gentiles, for God is one and will justify the circumcised on the basis of faith and the uncircumcised through faith. [Romans]
Before his conversion, St. Paul would never have made the statement above! He was a devout Pharisee, a Jew dedicated to the observance of the 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law. He would have considered anyone who did not share his zeal to be outside God's salvation (righteousness). His conversion was a 180 degree turn from that belief. It would be a person's faith in God, and not the observance of external precepts, that would determine a person's status before God. He will point to Abraham as "exhibit A" in this matter because Abraham existed long before Moses and the Law given on Mt. Sinai!
This is not simply a matter of debate about the Mosaic Law and its observance. We find the same challenge even in Catholicism when insistence on punctilious observance of rubrics or certain devotional practices or gestures is made the measure of a person's faith!! That is not the point of baptism, as St. Paul will make clear later on in Romans. Yes, there needs to be a certain uniformity of profession and practice in order for a community to form and worship, but insistence on uniformity can become extreme when a person's faith is questioned because of some minor "infraction" in liturgical matters, or in customs whose purpose has long been forgotten. Jesus' words to the Pharisees in the Gospel According to Matthew [9:12-13] are worth remembering. He was criticized for dining with tax collectors and sinners because this would make him ritually "unclean." His response was to quote from the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." St. Paul will help us to better understand what our baptismal commitment means and the true purpose of the Catechism and the Code of Canon Law! AMEN